NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE: ORTEC PARTIALLY DEPLETED SILICON SURFACE BARRIER DETECTORS

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The United States Department of Commerce (DOC), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division (AMD) intends to negotiate a firm fixed price purchase order, on a sole source basis, with Advanced Measurement Technology, Inc. for the procurement of Ortec partially depleted silicon surface barrier detectors for our BL2 neutron lifetime experiments. The statutory authority for this sole source acquisition is FAR 13.106-1(b) by the authority of FAR Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Physical Measurement Laboratory/Radiation Physics Division/Neutron Physics Group, requires a set of partially depleted silicon surface barrier detectors. These detectors will be used to detect electrons and protons from neutron beta decay. These detectors will be operated in vacuum and in some instances will be operated with a floating ground at around 25 kV and/or at cryogenic temperatures.

The NIST BL2 neutron lifetime experiment requires partially depleted silicon surface barrier detectors to detect low energy protons from neutron decay. These detectors are operated in a manner somewhat different than their typical usage. For scientific/technical reasons, the noise level, energy resolution of protons, and particle energy loss in the dead layer of these detectors, as measured in our apparatus, is very important.

These detectors will be used interchangeably with existing detectors manufactured by Ortec (model numbers listed below), and thus must be compatible in terms of package size, electrical connection, and capacitance. We operate these detectors at cryogenic temperatures and with a floating ground of 30 kV (outside their standard operating conditions) and their reliability is extremely important - swapping a detector due to faulty performance causes a loss of at least 4 days of operation.

Detectors currently in use (not an exhaustive list) that will be routinely swapped with these new detectors:

Ortec Surface Barrier (model numbers TB-019-300-300-S, TB-XXX-300-300-S, BA-XXX-600-1000-S, BA-019-300-300-S, BA-XXX-300-300-S, BA-XXX-300-1000-S, BA-017-300-1000-S, BA-030-600-1000-S)

The Neutron Physics Group requires surface barrier detectors that have different amounts of gold coated on the surface, as well as implanted charged particle detectors (which have no gold coating but are bare silicon) to determine systematic effects in our experiment. Ortec is the only known manufacturer of the type of surface barrier detectors that are required, and they are known to function well in our apparatus.

A detector from any other manufacturer would have to be thoroughly tested in our apparatus to ensure its interchangeability, its reliability under our stringent operating conditions, and its suitability in terms of energy resolution, noise levels, and, importantly, the energy loss of our low energy protons in the detector dead layer. Such tests would require a minimum of three weeks of operating time (a significant hindrance as this experiment runs on beamline NG-C at the NCNR where experimental time is limited), at least $5000 in liquid helium costs to run the apparatus to do the testing, as well as significant effort, all with no guarantee of suitability.

Delivery shall be FOB DESTINATION and shall be in accordance with the Contractors established commercial lead times.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 334516 and the size standard is 1000 employees.

No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, all responsible sources interested may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement. The Government will consider responses received by established due date/time set forth in this notice. Inquiries will only be accepted via email to joni.laster@nist.gov . No telephone requests will be honored.

A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed acquisition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement in the future.

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